Malkin And Hannity Misinform About Military Ballots To Hype Voter Hysteria

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for efforts to improve the integrity of our voting system. But the selective outrage, the deliberate attempts to mislead viewers about voting issues and the calculated use of inflammatory rhetoric last night (10/27/10) by Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin proved nothing about voter problems and everything about their own disingenuous agenda.

Michelle Malkin was already on her soapbox as she accused Democrats in Nevada – where there just happens to be a very tight race that might unseat the Democratic majority leader and give Republicans control of the Senate – of dirty dealing. (Those claims are debunked nicely by Media Matters’ Julie Millican.)

Malkin alternately whined that the White House “demonize(d)” a group of “citizen watchdogs” standing up to “ensure and protect the integrity of the electoral process” and, thinking we’d not notice her own demonization, she sneered, “We’re dealing with leftists who have a ‘by any means necessary’ mentality.” By the way, I don’t recall Malkin whining about the underhanded, discredited and in some cases illegal tactics used against ACORN.

Meanwhile, those voter integrity eagles showed interest in only those who might be likely to vote Republican. Overlooked were Democrat Harry Reid's accusations of voter suppression in Nevada and allegations of minority (think Democratic) votersuppression elsewhere.

But when it came to likely Republican voters, Hannity was ready to fabricate efforts of voter suppression where none existed as he reiterated Fox News’bogus military ballot “controversy.”

But first, the inflammatory run up, from Hannity: You would think that this would be an issue that Eric Holder and the Department of Justice would be all over by now… the disenfranchisement of our brave men and women in the military.

Hannity complained that New York got an extension to send out military ballots to October 1 but that none had been sent out by mid-October. Hannity claimed, “It’s virtually impossible for those ballots to get back in time to actually count for the election.”

Well, only if troops believe Hannity’s misinformation and don't bother to vote. The Justice Department settled with New York to extend their deadline for receiving military ballots. So long as they are postmarked by Nov. 1, the ballots can be received up until Nov. 24.

Hannity also cited Illinois But a similar solution was arranged there, too. Hannity either deliberately misinformed or didn't bother to do any research about the very subject he was attacking the DOJ over.

Furthermore, neither Hannity nor "Voter-Integrity" Malkin mentioned anything about the Federal Voting Assistance Program which, as I previously posted, has a website that allows overseas personnel to get a ballot and a postage paid mailer in just a few minutes.

But that didn’t stop Hannity from doing a little partisan hate mongering. “Now, if we’re gonna send these guys over to fight for us and then we don’t guarantee their vote and the government doesn’t even get involved in that case, you got to ask yourself what is going on?”

Malkin either didn’t know about the DOJ’s resolution or else chose to deliberately go along with Hannity’s misinformation. “Yeah, what is going on?” she asked contemptuously. She complained that she had heard of similar problems in Colorado, too. She added, “J. Christian Adams, the whistleblower who used to work for the Department of Justice has been on this and is trying to do his best and use his legal resources to protect our military’s right to vote.” Right. That’s J. Christian Adams, the GOP activist who trumped up the phony New Black Panther case.

Then, Ms. I Hate Demonization spat, “Where is the Department of Social Justice and the Attorney General, Eric Holder on this? Apparently, as we know, they’re far more interested in protecting the New Black Panther Party thugs who are intimidating people at the polls than they are with military people who are trying to get to the polls.”

If Malkin had done a bit of research, she’d have known that even J. Christian Adams never dug up a single voter who claimed to have been intimidated by the New Black Panther Party.

At the end of the segment, Hannity wished Malkin a Happy Birthday. It just figures she’d spend her birthday spreading malice rather than celebrating.